Karnataka Assembly polls: Congress to release 2nd list of candidates on Tuesday

New Delhi [India], April 2 (ANI): The Congress Central Election Committee will hold a meeting on Tuesday in the national capital to release the second list of candidates for the Karnataka Assembly polls days, after the poll body announced the election schedule for the southern state.

According to reports, the meeting will be held at 10 am at the party headquarters. The Congress had earlier announced the list of candidates for 124 out of 224 Assembly constituencies.

Eyeing women voters as well as the state’s minority vote bank, the Congress has given Assembly poll tickets to six women candidates and eight minority candidates in its first list of candidates.

The names of former chief minister Siddaramaiah and the party’s state president DK Shivakumar feature in the first list of 124 candidates.

Siddaramaiah will be contesting from the Varuna constituency while Shivakumar would be the party’s candidate from Kanakapura.

Earlier, Siddaramaiah had expressed his interest to contest from the Kolar constituency but the Congress High Command instructed him to drop the plan following disagreements between the party’s local leaders in the constituency. The party has fielded M Roopakala from the Kolar Gold Field constituency.

The Election Commission on March 29, announced the schedule for the Karnataka Assembly elections.

The polling would take place in a single phase on May 10, and the counting of votes will be done on May 13, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said in a press conference earlier this month.

Sharing data pertaining to the ensuing polls, the CEC said there are a total of 5.21 crore voters in the state and the number of 100 plus voters is 16,976.

He informed that over 58,000 polling stations would be set up across the state.”There are 224 Assembly constituencies of which 36 are reserved for the SCs and 15 for the STs. The total electorates in the state are 5,21,73,579 crores of which males are 2.62 crores and females are 2.59 crores. The total number of 80 plus electors is 12.15 lakhs. It is an increase of 32 per cent from 2018. It also includes 16,976 proud electors who are 100 plus.

The number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) has increased to 5.55 lakhs. This is an increase of close to 150 per cent,” Kumar said.
He said that the number of first-time voters in the souther state has increased from 2018-19 by 9.17 lakh.